As a boy growing up in a small village in Ethiopia, Tamiru Atraga felt called to do God’s work. But he couldn’t have imagined it would take him halfway around the world.
Atraga was one of seven priests ordained yesterday in a Mass at The Cathedral of the Holy Cross. He is the first Ethiopian priest to be ordained in the 200-year-old Boston Archdiocese, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley said during the service.
“It is a very historic event,” O’Malley said, prompting applause from the crowd of several hundred that gathered to witness the ordination.
Ethiopians from across the region attended the event, clearly delighted to see one of their own become a man of the cloth. A small group of Ethiopian Catholics attends Mass each week at the cathedral and many of them live in the Boston area.
“Everyone has been wanting to have a priest from our community,” said Bisrat Abebe, who came to Boston with Atraga from Ethiopia’s capital city of Addis Ababa in 2000 as a fellow seminarian. “Tamiru will be a great priest. He’s very prayerful and easy to interact with.”
Fiori Hailemaram traveled to Boston from Washington, D.C., yesterday with her mother to see Atraga ordained.
“This is a blessing,” she said after the service. “I’m very proud of him, very happy. It’s another confirmation of the unity of the church.”
Less than 1 percent of the population in Ethiopia is Catholic. Most Ethiopians are Muslim or Orthodox Christian. In 1993, the country’s northern province of Eritrea declared independence and became a sovereign nation.
“The countries are broken up, but the Church has remained the same,” Hailemaram said.
The youngest of 11 children, Atraga was raised in a devout Catholic family in the southern part of Ethiopia. He felt God’s calling early and entered seminary when he was just 14.
“The voice inside was killing me,” said Atraga, who is now 30. “It was a constant ache.”
In 1996 he met a visiting priest who asked whether he wanted to come to the United States to finish his studies. The pair corresponded for years, and in 2000, Atraga left his homeland to fulfill his destiny. He has not been home since.
But after growing up in a village without any roads or street lights, Atraga had a hard time adapting to life in Boston. Driving was scary. It was cold. The cultures were completely different.
“The most difficult thing was getting to know people in terms of spirituality,” he said. “Yes, you might go out and enjoy a dinner with someone, but it was very difficult to get to know them.”
Over the next eight years, Atraga set about establishing his life in Boston, studying at St. John’s Seminary and working at St. Ann Parish in Neponset as a deacon.
“He’s a very humble and a very joyful man,” said the Rev. Daniel Hennessey, director of vocations for the archdiocese.
With his story of immigration and perseverance, Hennessey said he sees Atraga as a bridge to bring people facing adversity back to the church.
“He’s a man who has asked serious questions about life and faith,” he said.
He has been assigned to Immaculate Conception Parish in Malden and will assume his new responsibilities in the next few weeks.
Tania deLuzuriaga, The Boston Glob
9 thoughts on “Boston Archdiocese ordains Ethiopian priest for first time”
Congratulations, Rev. Tamiru. I wish you God’s blessings in His service!
I just wanted to comment on a few points in the report.
Is the follwoing statement true?
“Ethiopia was an Italian colony from the early 1900s until the 1940s, but less than 1 percent of the population there is Catholic.”
Do we take pride in being colonized? Should we had better been colonized so we could become Catholic? What has Catholicism to do with Italian colonialism? Is that a good way of catholicizing? Where in the New Testament is colonization as a means of christianization justified?
“Most Ethiopians are Muslim or Orthodox Christian.”
Are you implying that both religious orders imposed their beliefs in Ethiopia like the Italian colonial “civilzing” mission?
“In 1993, the country’s northern province of Eritrea declared independence and became a sovereign nation.”
If both Eritrea and Ethiopia were colonized by Catholic Italians from 1900 to 1940s, why did the colonizers divide the Ethiopia. I know many of us want to blame Menilik for not chasing the Italians out of Eritrea at the time. But, I think we should not forget that Italy was a world power of the day. It was a Catholic nation as well. Is it not God’s intervention that that the Emperor defeated the Italians at the Battle of Adwa?
I hope your ministry would consider religious dialogue in the interest of regional peace and reconciliation in a time when polarization and radicalization are rampant.
May I reitarate that Christianity according to Christ is simply an order of life based on making peace with God and fellow man. It is not a religious institution, but an individual life-style commited to His principles.
Was it by mistake or intentional that history has been misrepresented in the above article?
To remind the writer/editor that Ethiopian has never been colonized by the Italians for that length of time; rather Ethiopia had been invaded for Five years by the Italians: 1928 – 1935.
This is without considering the Weyane invasion for 17 years.
The Catholic Church, no doubt, is in need of priests (Chinese, Mongolians, Japanese, Africans, and many others) here in the United States and abroad; even some who are concerned about the dwindling number of the Catholic Church priests are asking the Church to allow married priests to serve the Church in order to avoid the sex scandals within the Catholic Church.
I congratulate this Ethiopian black man for achieving the highest honor – to be a priest in the Catholic Church; I hope he will avoid to emulate the bad examples of those corrupt Italian popes but follow the footsteps of St. Augustine, bishop of Cartage, Africa.
The Boston Glob says that Ethiopia has been colonized for about 40 years by the Italians; I would say Ethiopia has never been colonized by the Italians for that long. They were in Ethiopia just for five years, and in those years they were not at peace; they were receiving heavy human casualties caused by the Ethiopian heroes, and finally these Ethiopian heroes drove them away from Ethiopia
what is the difference between colonization and full invasion for many years?
A powerful country invades another less powerful country, plunder it, destroy it, and leave the country without settling there. For example, the United States invaded Iraq, destroyed many properties, killed many innocent people but does not want to colonize it; it is coming out of it.
The British invaded Kenya, settled there, and ruled the country for a long time; the same is true with the Spaniards who conquered the Americas and colonized the countries for hundreds of years.
For Asmelash, in #4 above, it does not seem there is a difference between submission to slavery and the processes of defying slavery. He does not feel the difference as he has been brought up in that enviroment, and it seems he has pride in it because he does not want to accept the difference.
For instance Weyane has invaded our country for 17 years but unable to colonize it as far as we are still fighting and did not have total control. A war is never over until the opponent submits.
My correction in #2 above: 1928 – 1935 should be replaced by 1928 – 1933. My apologies!
to Menelik. first of all thanks for giving attention to my question
assume that a population is in slavery for ten years. Based in your idea, those who are submitted to slavery you call them colonized, while for those who defy it you call them invaded. Many african countries are said to be colonized in the past, so do u think they had accepted slavery in that time?
What I don’t understand about some Ethiopians, specially of the Amhara and Tigray strain is that they think they know Eritrea’s history better than Eritreans themselves. That in itself shows a colonial mentality. I implore Ethiopians to manage their affairs and get their people a chance to live a free and peaceful life as the Eritrean people managed to do by fighting for it for fourty years. We Eritreans know who we are and us and only write our own history, not anyone who thinks they own us.
Emperor Haileselassie and colonel Menghistu tried to destroy Eritrea’s history and both failed, Woyanne tried to emasculate Eritrea in 1998 declaring a war and failed miserably. Now I would like to advise some of my Ethiopian brothers and sisters is to mind your business and free the oppresed Ethiopian people instead of relieving past “glory” of your colonia conquests. Enough is enough.
mchem neta hager ethiopia